Eyes and Endings
by xuarnno
Summary: After the battle, the seven (and a few others) are absolutely exhausted and unstable. They quarrel, make up, only to land in another argument. Basically tying up loose strings from HoO. (First fic so please review and help!) I don't own PJO or HoO.
1. Prologue

_A/N: My first work online, so forgive me if there's way too much fluff. I'll try to cut down on all the soppy and cheesy things. Only a prologue, so it's particularly short. Please review so I can improve, thanks!_

_Leo_

When Festus gained stability in the air, Leo turned around for a glance, noticing how Calypso's nails were digging into the spaces between the bronze plates. Her eyes were wild but wholly fixated on Leo, as if she would do anything not to look at the few cloud nymphs and venti tittering and billowing around their heads.

"Are we going to your… friends?" She said the word as if it had a sacred flair to it. Leo looked down beneath all the clouds and recognized Long Island from a distance away well enough. Without meaning to, he'd steered Festus towards Half-Blood Hill. He took a deep whiff of clean air and gagged. Boy, he really stank.

"I think they think I'm dead," Leo explained, "But I assure you they will not be able to live without me- the Supersized Mcshizzle Supreme Commander of the Argo II! I'm absolutely irreplaceable."

Calypso laughed- it sounded like raindrops and windchimes. "We can start our garage now if I don't still hate you," she grinned, "Maybe I still do."

"Oh, I'm sure you don't. I'm irreplaceable!" Leo emphasized as Festus shot down sharply towards Long Island and Calypso muttered something about heights.


	2. Chapter 1- Where the mouth is poisonous

_Piper_

The six of them sat huddled on the right of the empty burial shroud, watching as Nico lined the top with various tools and gadgets; everything Leo had made. Reyna simply flew overhead on Guido, obviously wanting to stay as far away from this as possible. Previously, she confided in Piper that she might not be able to handle all the grieving vibes, so her solution was this. On the other hand, Piper was stuck on the ground, having to come up with an eulogy for the bloody bastard that Leo was.

She was too devastated for words but she managed to take an agonizing breath and look around at everyone else. Even the grimy faces of the Hephaestus cabin were too much for her; all of them bore resemblances to Leo and his idiotic, noble face. Decidedly, her eyes rested on Jason, Annabeth, Hazel, Percy, Frank and Nico.

Piper held back her tears, lending on the strength Reyna offered.

"This is incredibly difficult for us all- I honestly don't know how to begin describing this insufferable pig. He was the bravest and stupidest person I've ever met and I-" What was that?

She stopped, trying to find the correct words for the huge Celestial bronze shadow diving into the burial shroud. Instead, she screamed, "HE'S THERE!"

She ducked and caught a fleeting glance of Percy and Annabeth yell, "DÉJÀ VU!" before collapsing into giggles while pieces of shrapnel from the burial shroud exploded everywhere.

Leo stood up, looking like an absolute mess with tattered and burnt clothes and soot all over his body. Meanwhile the girl beside him was coughing ashes and dust all over her jeans while Festus creaked and groaned. Jason, Annabeth, Hazel, Percy, Frank and Nico surged forward as if the clouding rise of smoke was a sort of magnetic lure to demigods. Reyna swooped down, landing gracefully on the rubble.

Piper's initial surprise suddenly clouded with an awkward mixture of blind fury and amusement. She stormed forward amidst the mass of burning bits and pieces and ordered, "Slap yourself."

Leo's arm flexed and immediately shot up to his sooty face, slapping himself so hard he fell towards Percy, who jumped aside to let him fall. The girl beside him fell into a sufficient fit of giggles, in which Percy turned with an abrupt start and stared at her.

"C-Calypso?" He stuttered, causing Annabeth to jolt upwards from a brief inspection of the rubble and narrow her eyes at the girl.

"Hey guys," Leo managed, "Calm down there, Beauty Qu-"

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! YOU KILLED YOURSELF FOR ONE _HEROIC_ SACRIFICE TO DESTROY GAIA- WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE AN IRRITATING IDIOT, NOT SOMEONE WHO DOES NOBLE _SHIT_ LIKE THAT! YOU DISAPPEARED FOR 5 MONTHS AND YOU COME BACK WITHOUT ANY FORMER NOTICE THAT YOU'RE _ALIVE_ AND HERE WE ARE BEING SO DEPRESSED AT _YOUR_ FUNERAL AND YOU SUDDENLY POP UP AND YOU ARE SUCH AN ASSHOLE!" Piper yelled with such a seething force that everyone else had to shield themselves from the sheer intensity of her anger. For effect, Hazel made a tall pile of gems emerge right where Leo stood, where he flailed his arms wildly and fell over in a graceless heap, dust and soot billowing from the impact.

"Um, Piper, Hazel, calm down…" Jason mumbled, keeping a distance from them.

"Well, shit on that!" she retorted, not realizing she was still charmspeaking until everyone shuffled towards the toilet.

"Holy Zeus… COME BACK!" she yelled. Calypso, apparently, was the only one unaffected by her words. She winked at Piper as if she'd known her for a millennia and walked over to Annabeth. "I might need a small talk with you."

Hazel glanced at Annabeth and Calypso's backs and stated curtly, "Percy, I think you'd better run," before she continued popping random piles of gems up wherever Leo walked and making pitholes to trip him with the mist. Frank, Jason, Nico and Reyna simply watched in amusement as Piper muttered a string of French, Ancient Greek, Latin and English curses under her breath while commanding Leo to perform self-inflicted harm.

"Percy-JACKSON- you LITTLE SHIT- COME BACK RIGHT NOW!" Annabeth bellowed, running after a panicked Percy with her dagger in her hand and Calypso singing with extreme ferocity, making pebbles rain down on Percy who was running for his life.

Apparently, the rest of the campers were completely satisfied in watching the scene unfold, their eyes darting from Calypso to Annabeth to Percy to Leo and to Piper in amusement.

When Piper, Hazel, Calypso and Annabeth finally calmed down, Piper continued glaring at Leo while Chiron and the cleaning harpies cleaned up the mess of pebbles, gems, soil and rubble. Festus had inched his way to a corner, where his eyes had dimmed a little.

_Percy_

Percy slowly backed from Annabeth, whose stormy grey eyes were so intensely pissed- as if she was conjuring lighting and thunder, blasting them silently into his mind. Man, she was _really_ creepy when she got mad.

"We need a talk," she hissed, the grey eyes boring into his sea-green ones. She curled her fingers around his wrist and dragged him into the Athena cabin- not a good choice, because her siblings were in the same room. Noting Annabeth's furious glare and the rising blonde strands of hair near her chin, Malcolm quietly slid down his bunk, pretending to grab a book on the shelf while whispering, "Careful, mate," to Percy. It didn't do any good to his nerves either; only reminded him of the impending storm. A scolding from a daughter of Athena wasn't exactly rainbows and butterflies.

It was right in the middle of the room where Annabeth suddenly turned around and punched Percy right in the gut, earning a few cringes from her siblings.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT CALYPSO?" she yelled, enunciating each syllable as sharply as Riptide.

"I thought you knew," he mumbled, "I- I told Leo- I promised I would help him n-no matter what and-and I'm sorry for-" His words were a garbled mess; multiplied with the apology he felt for Calypso and how Annabeth was cursed by the arai and how the gods forwent their promise the easy way while they had to be tormented in Tartarus.

"SORRY DOESN'T CUT IT!" Annabeth shrieked, her eyes scarier and scarier, "YOU DIDN'T TELL ME- I COULD HAVE ASKED THE GODS FOR HER FAVOR, AND YOU WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO ALMOST _DIE_ VENGING FOR ME WITH THE ARAI BECAUSE I FELT SO _PATHETICALLY ALONE_, YOU LITTLE- YOU- YOU COULD HAVE DIED FROM ALL THE STUPID CURSES; YOU DIDN'T NEED TO- YOU- BOB AND DAMASEN DIDN'T-" She faltered before she burst into tears. Her siblings shifted their stares back to whatever they were doing beforehand. Malcolm coughed.

"Hey, it's all over," Percy soothed (albeit failingly) when Annabeth glared at him and muttered, "Boys."

_Frank_

Being the only person who understood, almost first-hand, what Leo had gone through (since he'd actually burnt half of his firewood to save Thanatos, the god of death), he meekly stood in an awkward corner while Piper and Hazel pelted Calypso and Leo with questions, the both of them evidently pissed at Leo but very much pleased with Calypso's presence. Jason stood silently next to him, as if he couldn't comprehend whatever had happened in the past hour.

He'd heard furious yelling, with definite pauses and each rant more prominent and louder than the previous one, coming from the Athena cabin a few minutes ago and just assumed it would be Annabeth. No one would be so dumb as to exacerbate her already fueled anger but Percy. He remembered the two of them in a fit of laughter just a few moments ago; Annabeth was probably on her period.

"Wait, Frank… What?" Jason's blue eyes grew wide open, "You know that much about girls?"

Frank only blushed the shade of blood before becoming a bulldog. He had no idea why; he always found life better as a bulldog. Besides, bulldogs were cute and carefree. He'd had two yelling sessions enough for a day.


	3. Chapter 2- Solangelo?

_**A/N: No one's reviewing Dx please review please please please!**_

_Jason_

Jason had no idea what to think. For the past few weeks, Piper had been absolutely hostile to Leo, but extremely friendly to Calypso- as if it were Calypso who'd died and not Leo. Leo sent Jason frequent iris-messages of his auto-repair shop, with Calypso's lemonade stand in the corner of the rented space, much to Piper's incessant eye-rolling whenever Jason told her he needed to go help with the electricity. Hazel, on the other hand, had gotten over her initial anger, rendering Jason very confused. (Piper refuses to forgive someone? What?) Coach Hedge spent all his time with Mellie because Grover, one of the Cloven Elders, had excused him from any demigod missions. Thalia and Hylla were so preoccupied with collecting Hunters and Amazons that they refused to go for anything unrelated to female company, which Jason, naturally, found absurd.

To make matters more infuriating, Annabeth was royally mad at Percy for a variety of reasons, one of which was him not telling her about Calypso, the other was the crazy insinuation that Percy was partially responsible for Bob and Damasen's death. On the other hand, she, like Piper and Hazel, was uncannily nice to Calypso. They hung out like they'd known each other since they were born, much to the boys' disbelief. Percy and Leo had been spending the majority of their afternoons with Jason and Frank instead of attempting to patch things up with Annabeth and Piper. At least Leo had Calypso for "healthy feminine influence", but all Percy had were… Jason and Frank, who weren't very feminine in the first place. Frank also happened to be turning into a bulldog very frequently these days, and when Jason actually found him hiding (under Thalia's pine) he would turn into a swarm of bees and harass Jason until he went away. Jason didn't think it was very "Frank-like" but he didn't comment. Reyna had gone back to Camp Jupiter, leaving Frank and Hazel in charge of corporate relations with Camp Half-blood and fund-raising for the camps, hopefully with the possibility that Hazel could make a special labyrinth route between the two camps.

The six of them, including Nico, were planning to rent an apartment suite either at the Empire State building or nearby so that Annabeth could renovate the whole of Mount Olympus again, Percy could visit his mother more often and Piper simply wanted to be away from being reminded that she was a demigod. The rest of them just agreed to stay with each other. However, ever since Leo made his graceful entrance back to Half-blood Hill, there was zero time for finding steady lifestyles for all of them. Jason had been extremely preoccupied with trying to soothe Zeus' and Hera's wrath (who had approached him not-so discreetly and pelted him with tons of complains) without compromising Leo's life. He had a list of _all_ the gods and goddesses, which he had gotten from a reluctant Zeus, and he wasn't even down to even half the list of acknowledging and formally calling for a mass meeting of all the demigods so the gods and goddesses could be officially recognized. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the best way to keep _all _of the gods and goddesses at bay without them coming back to harass both camps for more "recognition". The gods and goddesses with their names later down on the list, thankfully, were fine with waiting for their turn to be "honored". He remembered Adicia, the goddess of injustice, screaming the word "INJUSTICE" over and over when Jason ordered the camp blacksmiths to make a statue of her. It wasn't his fault that the statue didn't look like her, but she had wrecked the all the altars in both camps, making _all_ the gods extremely mad. Since they couldn't take their anger out on Adicia, who, after all, was an immortal goddess, they held Leila from the Fifth cohort hostage until the camps re-built all of the altars.

He couldn't sleep at night, with everything on his mind. Honestly, on the Argo II, he slept far better, even when he thought he was going to die fighting Gaia. It was probably because he was in his father's domain, but when he tried climbing up the tallest trees in the camp at night to fall asleep, it didn't work, and also ended up being called "Katniss" by Leo (who tried setting fire to the branches only to be electrocuted). Counting sheep was also useless, so he could do with simply thinking till his brain tired so much from it. It usually got him 1-2 hours of sleep in the morning. He lay on his bed with wide eyes. Better than nothing.

The next day, Jason woke up to rapid banging on his door. He stared at the huge hippie Zeus statue and groaned, puffing up his hair more even though it was already dishevelled. For some reason, he wanted to look more tired than he already was; he had enough of people looking for him just to ask for permission for sacrificial proceedings. He wanted to appoint a centurion as his assistant but after the Adicia incident, none of the centurions were willing to. After a melodramatic minute of him simply lying down on the bed and feeling pissed, he got up and opened the door- to see Nico Di Angelo and Will Solace grinning. Gods.

Wait… What? Nico grinning? And… What was Will doing outside his cabin?

He rubbed his eyes and saw flowers in Nico's hand.

What on earth was happening?

Jason rubbed his eyes again to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"What… is… what?" Jason managed a stammer before he continued dumbly gaping at Nico and Will.

"Me and Will are- no actually, Will and I- oh you know what, forget grammar! So he gave me this-" Nico gestured wildly at the flowers, "And I said yes, and now we are-" he gave Will a small peck on his chin, "together! And I decided you would be the first one I told, because, you know, Eros." Nico gushed. Jason immediately decided that Nico gushing and being excited was extremely weird and uncomfortable; normal emo Nico was more suited to Nico.

Jason shook his head and stared at Will, who was humming a song that sounded suspiciously like Justin Bieber. "So…" Jason started before his drowsy mind consumed by both sleep and confusion cleared and his drooping backbone and eyelid shot up. He blinked twice, as if coming out of a trance, switched his gaze from a still humming Will to Nico, and smiled. (Will was _definitely_ humming Justin Bieber.)

"Seriously, Jason, you are so slow," Nico muttered, watching as the vines on the flower grow rapidly as if to choke him. He dropped the flowers on the floor with a huge thud, causing Will to wince.

"Nico…" Will started slowly, his fingers slowly inching towards the ground. Nico swatted his hand away. "Don't touch it," he seethed, "Persephone thinks I might kill the flowers. We should give them to the Demeter cabin." Will stared at the now still flowers, then at Jason. Under Jason's piercing blue reply of a stare, Will turned back to the younger boy and smiled. For some inexplicable reason, all the silent chemistry between Will and Nico made Jason think of Piper. Gods, he needed a serious chat with Aphrodite about Piper's priorities.

He looked back at Nico and it reminded him of everything he had gone through, and all of a sudden Jason felt this overwhelming protective urge over Nico to punch Will. Instead, he stuck his hands in his pockets and glared sullenly at Will. Sensing the sudden change in Jason's mood, Will glumly shuffled his feet and gestured for Nico to go back to his cabin.

When Nico was finally out of earshot, Will picked up the flowers. "I'm sure you'd like to have a nice little chat with me over tea," he mumbled, "Even I don't know as much about my boyfriend as you would. He's totally secretive."

Jason sighed, all the malice dissipating from him. He couldn't blame Will for not knowing anything about Nico. In fact, he thought Will was kind of a total idiot for falling for Nico, but as Eros had said, love was never fair. If he thought about it, Will was almost too right for Nico- maybe bring out Nico's less creepy side.

"I reckon he hasn't even told you about that time when he went into Tartarus, went through it and came out alive, him being from the 1930s because his memories were washed in the Lethe when his mother died, or having to sustain a whole week in a death trance on a pomegranate seed a day, or having to confess to Eros that he was in love with Percy, or hi-"

"What?" Will gasped, "Tartarus alone? That little shit didn't tell me anything!"

Jason fumbled for his words. "Um… He also got turned into a plant."

Will eyed Jason suspiciously.

"Twice," Jason added, "And don't look at me like that, I have a girlfriend, for heaven's sake."

"I just… It's too hard to digest, and I seem like a really rash person and now that I know that you know more than I do, it just makes it even worse… It's like, I thought he just came up with the stupid idea then that he wasn't going to return to either camp because he's an emo Hades person but I didn't even know… Gods, how did he live with all this?" Will buried his face in his flowers, his blond hair the only thing above all the roses. Jason tried not to remind himself of how much his blond hair looked like his own.

"Yeah, well… If you ever hurt him, remember that I have an Imperial Gold javelin," Jason replied. Man, this world was coming to an end. All the melodrama occurring after the battle. Holy Zeus.

"So… So that means you approve?" Will gave an extremely Cheshire-like grin.

"You can here to ask for my approval after Nico accepted your flowers? You need to work on your timing!"

"Ah, well, Nico is a priority. Soooo? Please?" Will's very huge grin morphed into something like between Percy's baby seal face.

"Fine, I appro-"

"YAAAYYYY! OH MY GODS JASON GRACE IS THE BEST!" Will squealed, did an extremely weird little pat on Jason's head, before sauntering off to Cabin 13.

"This is going to be one hell of a tiring day," Jason mumbled and went back to his own cabin at a last attempt to catch back his sleep. Unlikely, though.


	4. Chapter 3- Reyna's facial expressions

_**A/N: OMG guys thanks so much for all the nice reviews! Also, I honestly don't mind harsh criticism so I can improve better! I also changed the format after I realized that the first chapter was really messy with so many POVs so I just stuck to one long POV per chapter and it's so much better. After I'm done with this fanfic, I'm going to start on a hp/pjo-hoo crossover. If only I could add a third book series (thg) into the whole crossover thing but I'll only start on it after I'm done with this book! :D Keep reviewing and enjoy!**_

_Reyna_

Reyna swept her praetor's cape over her arms and settled back in her chair, glaring at all the romans, especially the senate. _What was with the Fates and déjà vu these days? First Leo, now this?_

"I will not tolerate anymore people attempting to mess with the altars," she crudely spat, "one goddess destroying all of them at one go is the worst possible scenario. However, trying to burn down an altar in an _experiment_, what I've heard, is ridiculous! I expected more of everyone, as Romans. What in the name of Bellona was this person thinking? I want this monkey to own up right now, or I swear on the River Styx I will _not_ let the Pontifex Maximus let go of this! The 12 Olympians, especially Jupiter, are highly intolerant of this particular no-brained issue. Thanks to this joker, the gods have pulled yet another _goddess of injustice_ on us. Thanks to this stupid joker, we now have _all our altars burnt down!_"

Everyone shuffled uneasily in their positions. However, there was a sense of slight relief coupled with the amount of tension hanging in the air. The augur's seat was empty. If Octavian had been here to witness the burning of his precious altars, he would have been in charge of the proceedings happening now. The people he sponsored _knew_ what would happen. He would promise a bountiful of rewards for the person who owned up with almost-too-surreal insinuations that honesty was the best mark of a roman, then with the person owning up, he would dig out a list of old records (exaggerated, if it were meager) and then order for exile. All in all, Octavian was an unreasonable person. At least Reyna didn't harbour any schemes.

However, Reyna was also not someone to piss off. Her wrath was very scary.

When a deafening silence responded to her long declaration, she stood up, crossed the two empty chairs that Jason and Frank would sit if they were present and fished out a drachma from her cloak, holding it threateningly over the huge glass prism in front of her. Percy and Jason had begged Reyna and Frank to place it there so that both camps could iris-message each other conveniently. Currently, it served as some sort of threatening device. All the cohorts flinched.

"I will _not_ hesitate to strip the person of any rank and place him or her under probation should he or she be unwilling to step up. This is the final call before I let the Pontifex Maximus know about this issue!"

Still, no one spoke up.

"Fine," Reyna spoke again coldly, "O goddess, accept my offering." She dropped the coin onto the rainbow. Everyone watched with a light, silent sense of "ooh" as the drachma dissolved into dust and a huge image of the mess hall flickered in front of all the Romans.

Jason's hair was a blond mess and his electric blue eyes were unflatteringly paired with dark eyebags. His mouth was full with food. The background noise was overwhelming, which was probably why Jason was so unresponsive to the sudden misty image of all the cohorts, the full senate and a praetor observing his every movement, until someone, probably a child of Aphrodite (because this particular demigod was clad in brands and makeup from head to toe), tapped on his shoulder and pointed at the iris-message.

Everyone finally got a full glimpse of Jason's face. He didn't look happy; most of all, he looked tired. They saw a very dazed Jason staring blankly at them with half-lidded eyes and a full mouth, then as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on his head, he widened his eyes and continued staring uncomprehendingly.

"_Pontifex Maximus,_" Reyna affirmed coolly, still wearing a regally inflamed look on her face. With everything happening these days, she always looked angry. She also discovered that less people bothered her when she _looked_ mad, even when she was deep in thought and attempting to wear a blank expression instead. Maybe she had been so pissed at everything happening that it had become a permanent etch. Needless to say, it scared Jason awake, if he wasn't before.

"Hi-" he choked un_grace_fully on his food, before gulping all of it up, "um, hi, Reyna- oh shit, oh shit, it's the full senate- oh gods- sorry-" Jason wiped hastily at his mouth and took a deep drink of his water, brushing off his wrinkly clothes and rubbing his eyes.

There was a collective bunch of giggles before Reyna rolled her eyes and responded with a threatening yell, "May I inquire what is so _funny_ about this particular issue?"

"What particular issue?" Jason was now positively fully awake with the way he had spoken.

"Another _Adicia_ the gods pulled on us, with all of them burnt down," Reyna retorted, "Gods be good, at least they didn't take anyone hostage, but some monkey burnt down an altar, causing all the Olympians to burn down the rest in rage. You know the standard protocol."

"Oh, I wanted to tell you about that. Yesterday Leo went over to Camp Jupiter with Hazel so he could conduct checks on your machinery and he couldn't differentiate your Roman altars from the Greek ones, then he wanted to sacrifice some shield from your stores to Hephaestus because he needed help with the configuration and he didn't want to summon fire because he wasn't wearing a fireproof shirt, so he just used Greek fire. It was yesterday," Jason rambled, as if he was terrified that he might burn down from the intensity of the glares he was offered. He swallowed.

"Reyna, please don't make me in charge of rebuilding the altars again. _Please_," Jason pleaded, choosing to completely ignore the ongoing glares from everyone else.

"You are at Camp Half-Blood. Leo is at Camp Half-Blood. Hazel is also at Camp Half-Blood. I believe I have the consensus of the full senate," Reyna replied, "Jupiter has given us the deadline by next Friday, before the Feast of Fortuna begins."

Reyna gave another final cold glare before she blocked out the rainbow with her hand. The image crumbled.

"Dismissed," she said, not knowing how to address the issue to Jupiter, Pluto and Vulcan.


	5. Chapter 4- Dramatics

_**A/N: Guys please review D: I'll try to make the storyline flow instead of making up pretty silly situations!**_

_Percy_

It had been ages since Annabeth had spoken civilly to him.

Ever since Calypso and Leo had come back to camp, Percy had been spending his breaks with Jason, Frank, Nico and Leo; mainly because Leo would often be at the Auto Repair and Mechanical Monsters, Calypso would be with him and he had a kind of false hope that Annabeth would be with her. Even if Annabeth had been affected by Calypso in any way when she had been cursed, she'd never shown it. Instead, she got along with Calypso way better than Percy- the Argo II girls and Reyna had even gone out on a few girls' nights out with Calypso. (Percy also did _not _want to know what they were talking about on these outings.) He was baffled, and at the same time, heartbroken. It did provide as some sort of comic relief to be with his friends, but it just wasn't the same as Annabeth.

He had tried. He swore he did. Honestly, he wanted to go up to Athena to ask her to mollify Annabeth's anger, but he was terrified that Athena would be mad at _him_. However, he was so desperate that the particular idea sounded appealing and before he knew it, he was restrained by an elephant, a huge thunderstorm, Festus and an army of skeletal warriors because all the boys both thought it wasn't a good idea. In the end, Jason had to shock him into oblivion.

After the whole incident, the boys took turns to accompany Percy everywhere he went, partly because they were afraid that he would do something irrational whenever he saw Annabeth, partly because they were afraid that he would lose control of his own powers whenever he was "unstable".

Percy hated being babysitted, but the boys weren't wrong.

"Percy? Percy? Are you listening?" Jason called. When Percy continued staring into space, Jason summoned a small bolt of electricity and poked him in the stomach.Percy's arm shot into his pocket, where Jason slapped his arm with a slightly larger bolt of electricity.

_Shit, what was I thinking,_ Percy fumbled for his control over his body while Jason sent comforting tingles of static down his back.

"You know, Jason, you make us seem like a gay couple sometimes," Percy smirked, sending Jason's cup of water flying into his face.

Jason swatted the water away, as if the water was some sort of annoying fly.

"Oh yeah, about gay couples, Nico and Will got together," Jason replied, the corner of his lips twitching and iced water dripping down his face. He shook his head vigorously and droplets of water flew everywhere.

"Will Solace?" Percy grinned, summoning all the water from Jason's face back into his cup and splashed it into his face again.

"Gods, please stop that," Jason muttered. Percy responded by dropping the water on Jason's hair.

"You asked for it!" Jason responded with equal impishness, poking Percy's gut with little electrical shocks. Percy jumped up and ran to the lake (Jason shocking him every few steps), where he conjured a mild hurricane and flung a few litres of water at Jason.

"Water! Oh no!" Jason squeaked, conjuring arcs of electricity and aiming them smoothly at Percy, who managed to avoid being lighted up like a Christmas tree but not escaping with some tinges of smoke curling from his hair. Percy squealed maniacally, causing the whole place to turn into something like a water park in a hurricane.

"Holy Hephaestus, that is something I will definitely not want to hear again."

Percy and Jason whipped their heads to the right simultaneously, causing all the water in the air to come crashing down and splashing everywhere. There was a resounding echo of complaints from the dryads around the lake while Leo and Nico were pushed down into an awkward sitting position on the grass by the sheer weight of the water. A hummingbird flew out of the mess.

"Also, that is something I will definitely not want to _experience_ again," Leo added, summoning fire to dry himself. Nico, meanwhile, had to make do with being damp by wringing and shaking the water off his clothes. Frank twittered around their heads. "Percy, your voice sounds weird high-pitched."

"Yeah, Leo, you're actually in major trouble for burning down a Roman altar and your deadline is next Friday before the gods burn up New Rome. Also, since the altars aren't Greek-fire proof, you'll need to make them so," Jason rattled, almost as if he was terrified Reyna might appear out of thin air. Frank had turned into an elephant for god knows what reason.

"Hey, Flash, I actually am a mechanic, not Bob the builder," Leo replied, "Also, since we are having a break, we need to have a nice chat about Nico being gay, because now Camp Half-Blood, especially the Aphrodite cabin, are going nuts over our first gay couple in years. I've heard that they're designing posters on Solangelo. Personally, I find Nill such a better name, because it's like Nil, which means zero, which means i-"

"Leo, for heaven's sake," Nico groaned, "I'm going to smash your face into the trees if you mention that."

"GUESS YOU FORGOT ME!" Percy yelled with childish glee, "I AM SO _YOUR_ TYPE, OKAY. YOU GOT A BOYFRIEND WHO'S NOWHERE NEAR MY TYPE-"

"Percy, it's been 5 months, and you're really not my ty-"

"HOW AM I NOT YOUR TYPE AGAIN? HOW DID WILL SOLACE BECOME YOUR TYPE? EXCUSE ME, I'M _PERCY_-" Percy lifted another few litres of water and soaked Nico drenched again, "-_JACKSON_ AND I'M EVERYONE'S TYPE! I'M THE BEST THING ANYONE CAN ASK FOR!"

"Apparently, right now, you're not Annabeth's type," Leo remarked, casually setting himself on fire on various parts of his body while the nearby dryads shrieked in fear.

"Leo-" Jason started, only to be cut off by a huge wave of water.

"I'm sure Annabeth will _love_ to hear that!" Percy replied with mock glee. Sensing the edge in his voice, Leo took a furtive step back, where he set a small branch on fire. Percy noticed and washed the whole branch (and Leo) down with water.

"Percy, you know for a fact that this is all temporary," Nico blurted.

"Frank can be a hummingbird too," Leo managed uselessly, his impish features masking concern. Jason drummed his fingers against his dripping wet pants. Frank, meanwhile, had turned into a bulldog.

Percy considered the all-too-sudden forlorn hanging thickly in the air.

"Guys, I'm totally fine. Just chill out," Percy sighed, plopping himself down on the soggy mud without bothering to keep himself dry.

"You're not fine as far as I know," Jason tried.

"Well then great news! New couple, new breakups! I'm sure Piper's cabin will be clapping their hands at the live drama series," Percy retorted, his previous liveliness all dissipated, "I'm sure _Percabeth_ will be a thing of the past and _Solangelo_ will be all the rage. Don't even get me started."

"Aquaman is jealous?" Leo asked warily.

Percy simply doused everyone in water again and stalked off back to his own cabin, sulking the whole time. The boys knew better than to follow him, but Jason, being the total stubborn caring idiot that he was, simply quietly tried to stay out of Percy's sight while tailing him. Percy sneaked a few glances behind him to see if anyone was following, and Jason was being _totally_ undercover in his attempts to cover his honey-blond head.

"Jason, you're horrible at hiding. Remind Chiron not to send you on discreet quests," Percy remarked at the blond strands of hair behind a thicket, which contrasted so much with the green leaves it almost looked like a piece of art.

"Welcome to Camouflage 101," Jason spread his hands and jumped out of the bushes, "Percy, you need to talk. You can't keep it all bottled up. I'm sure Annabeth is just as confused as you are. If you talk to me, I can help you talk to her, and-"

"Jason, stop acting like an Aphrodite kid. Piper can do that for me."

"What's on your mind, buddy?" Jason started apprehensively, casting sidelong glances towards the lake, as if the rest of the boys were catching up. Frankly, Percy didn't care.

"Nico has a new boyfriend, and I'm about to lose _my_ girlfriend," Percy moaned and slumped onto the ground, Riptide tumbling out of his pocket.


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N:**__**Hello! Sorry I've been gone for like ages because I've been so busy with school and it's so hectic and oh my gods! I'm changing the text alignment because a reviewer mentioned that it's difficult to read on the mobile version so I hope this helps. I tend to use centre text for my blogs etc because it looks kind of nicer and grounded hahaha but practically it's not that functional.**_

_**Also, from where I come from, we follow UK English, but my laptop follows American English because I don't have the UK thing so some of the spelling switches back and forth and I can't help it because Word autocorrect is very stubborn HAHAHA hope that cleared up matters!**_

_**I'm going to do a Marauders and crossover thing after this so pleasepleaseplease review I know my formatting still sucks because doesn't support word fully, but I'll try my best to improve for my future fics! Even though Eyes and Endings may be some sort of testing the waters gig I try to make it as enjoyable as possible! REVIEW, FAVOURITE OR FOLLOW! Preferably review thanks guys enjoy! X**_

_Piper_

Things were going dreadfully awry for every single one of the seven. Reyna's life was even better than hers, even. She did appreciate all the grandiose and glamour the praetor offered, and she was superbly thankful for Reyna's presence sometimes as Reyna was a remarkably composed person if the situation called for it. However, Piper did like having a sort of thing over her as being the daughter of Aphrodite and Jason Grace's girlfriend. Reyna had been set up on numerous blind dates by daughters, sons and legacies of Venus/Aphrodite with mortal boys because to be frank, no one in their right mind would be willing to date the praetor of Rome. However, now that Percy and Annabeth had not uttered a single word of courtesy to each other for a month and she and Jason's relationship was strained, she was honestly beginning to wonder if her mother claimed her because Aphrodite just wanted to have the honorable responsibility over a celebrity's daughter.

She wanted to charmspeak Annabeth into cooing "I love you's" to Percy, but she decided that would be something Drew Tanaka would be proud of doing, and Piper Mclean was _not _Drew Tanaka. Even so, her bratty half-sister had been charmspeaking her to sleep (she had given up on willpower against vocal magic like charmspeaking and yet she realized willpower was the whole key for her to be immune) for the past few days when she had been grumbling about fatigue. To her surprise, Drew had volunteered to even charmspeak the whole cabin to sleep. Who knew about changing tides? _Her_ world these days was incredibly messed up. She wanted more than anything to go up to Leo and give him a nice warm Olaf-y hug and complain about his height gain, but also she had an insufferable sense of pride she probably inherited from her mother. Truthfully, she felt that Annabeth was also feeling this insufferable sense of pride, also probably from Athena.

Oh gods, it was morning.

"Wake up, ladies and gentlemen," Piper declared loudly as everyone shot up from their pillows. Gotta love charmspeak.

"I need to pee!" Lacy squealed and slid down her bunk, prancing into the bathroom.

"What's happening today?" Piper mumbled, watching as her cabin mates fish out makeup sets and accessories while digging the

"Feast of Fortuna, _silly,_" someone drawled from behind her. _Was Drew always taller than me?_

"We'll get to see all the _hot_-" there was a collective series of gushes across the whole cabin, "Roman _guys-_ and hear them speak Latin! Latin is _so_ hot!" Drew continued, fishing out a ridiculous-looking pink spag top and floral jeggings. _They should ban jeggings in camp, holy Aphrodite._

"The Feast of Fortuna is in Rome. How the hades are we supposed to get there?" Andrea piped, her hands deftly slathering foundation all over her face.

"Chiron will make arrangements. I think Hazel and Nico will arrange for us to shadow-travel there," Piper replied serenely, sliding a Cherokee feather into her braids and standing up, "Well, we'd better get going- I'm sure you guys don't want to miss breakfast."

Drew gave a light snicker and sauntered out the door, the rest of the cabin following chattily. Piper grabbed her spare pocketknife and dropped it into her trousers, giving the subtlest of sighs as she shut the door.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

At her table, Piper watched glumly as her siblings chatted overzealously, her colourful eyes dulling to muted tones. Her pupils darted from table to table- the Athena and Hephaestus cabins were engaged in long architectural blueprints of the cabin layout and the mess hall because there were so many Greek demigods now that they would soon have to extend into the forest, which would piss off many of the dryads if they had to replant their trees. Since Annabeth, their most efficient architect, was spending almost her whole days at Mount Olympus, the other Athena children had to blindly refer to her duplicate notes and try their best not to screw anything up.

She glanced at Jason, who was sharing a table with Percy and the guy from the Dionysus cabin, Pollux, because the three of them were too lonely in their own tables and Chiron had given them special permission so that they could clear out more tables for more cabins as well. Mr D's term at Camp Half-Blood was cut to 15 years because of his part in the Giant War, leading to speculations about the next in-charge of camp, even though they could tell Dionysus was gradually warming up to life here and especially after the numerous crazy parties with the Romans (often hitched up to another level because of Mr D/Bacchus).

Piper's eyes averted back to her cup and she picked at her bacon. For some reason, she had absolutely no interest in her friends today. Calypso and Hazel were probably still asleep but honestly, she didn't care. She gave anyone who walked up to her a sullen glare and they immediately backed away. Perks of being very difficult to anger. She mentally rolled her eyes.

"Hey Piper, Chiron called for a camp meeting at noon," Lou Ellen from the Hecate cabin said, before she ran off to notify the other cabins.

"Even on the same day of the Feast of Fortuna?" Mitchell quipped.

"Probably about the Feast of Fortuna," Piper replied monotously.

"Are you alright?" Gloria asked.

"Obviously not," Drew sniggered.

Piper slowly chewed up her food and finished after almost everyone had left. She dragged herself to the Big House, where she was the first to arrive. Her eyes roamed around before settling on the clock- 11am and she plopped herself down on her seat.

About a minute later, she heard the door creak, much to her annoyance, because she had come an hour earlier simply so she would not have to experience human company. She slowly turned her heavy head, her eyelids not bothering to show any sense of welcome by remaining in a half-lidded state, and by deducing the tall, skinny, slightly olive figure in front of him, it was probably Leo.

_Why couldn't it have been Clovis? He would probably sleep the moment he got here. I hate humans. I really, really hate humans._

_Oh my gods, it's Leo. Leo freaking Valdez._

At that instant of her slow recognition, her eyelids shot up but instead of welcome, she gave him a death glare.

"No high hopes, buddy," Leo replied while his hands fiddled with what looked like another Archimedes death sphere. _Stupid Leo and his stupid things!_

"Nice… Nice weather today," she stammered awkwardly. _Stupid Piper!_

"Piper is becoming British," Leo replied, relief creeping up into his voice as he sat on his chair.

"Leo Valdez, do not talk to me. We are not engaging in conversation," Piper retorted before she realized, with a start, she was charmspeaking. She watched as Leo closed his mouth with weird obedience and mentally slapped herself.

"N-no," she stumbled over her words like a baby saying "mama" for the first time.

"Hey, Piper and Leo," she heard as the door creaked open again. Jason walked in while bro-fisting Leo. _Oh, gods. Oh gods. I am so blaming Aphrodite for this._

"Err- Piper?"

"Haha… Hi, Leo," she offered weakly, shooting Jason a hugely false grin and mentally slapping herself again.

"Piper, my name is Leo Valdez and his name is Jason Grace. Are you alright?"

_Why is everyone asking me if I'm alright, oh my gods!_

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. How's the weather?" _Shit. STOP ASKING ABOUT THE WEATHER PIPER MCLEAN!_

Leo collapsed into hysterical laughter while Jason furrowed his eyebrows, the corners of his mouth tilting and soon he was guffawing along with Leo.

"The weather is glorious," Leo said in between giggles.

Piper felt her cheeks burn up.

"Ugh," she groaned, smacking her head with her hand.

"Really, Pipes, you need to put down your awful pride," Jason reasoned, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Not if it's Leo Valdez," Piper seethed.

"Piper, it's been a month," Leo said, his face impassive.

"Yeah, well, you could've iris-messaged us for the 3 months you'd gallivanted around with Calypso, because apparently we're not important enough! And we had to have a stupid shroud-burning thing for you and then you just crashed your funeral like that- boom!" Piper ranted furiously.

"I was flying on Festus' back, where he resurrected me while I remained in a shadow coma for a very long time and he was looking for Ogygia, and Ogygia is nowhere near Long Island Sound," Leo countered, sounding tired and desperate. "Does that explain anything to the Beauty Queen's thick head now?"

"You could've iris-messaged us when you woke up," Piper snapped adamantly.

"When I woke up, we had just reached Ogygia," Leo replied exasperatedly.

"Pipes, he's one of your best friends, and he died for us. Please," Jason pleaded, his startling blue eyes boring into hers.

"Fine," she bit back, sinking back into her chair.

"I'm guessing she won't be withholding that high pride of hers," Leo managed as other head councilors filed into the room.


End file.
